Photo Credit: Pennenergy Two Nanushuk wells were tested this year, including the Qugruk 8 (Q-8) vertical well, which tested a small portion of the net pay zone and flowed 30 degree API gravity crude at rates of up to 2,160 barrels of oil per day (BOPD). The Qugruk 301 (Q-301), two miles north of Q-8, tested a 2,000 foot horizontal lateral. The well flowed at tubing constrained rates as high as 4,600 BOPD with minimal bottom hole pressure drawdown.
In the East Alpine field, two new penetrations were completed in the Alpine Formation, adding to the previous two penetrations. Three of these wells have encountered oil productive Alpine sand in excess of 95 feet thick at a depth of 6500 feet with porosities ranging from 15% to 25%. Well control and seismic data indicates the oil pool covers an area in excess of 15,000 acres . . .
The activity to date since the beginning of exploration has resulted in the discovery of several oil fields on the North Slope of Alaska. All 16 wells (including sidetracks) drilled by the consortium have found hydrocarbons, most with multiple pay zones. In the Nanushuk reservoir, the consortium has drilled seven appraisal wells to date and has proven an oil pool that covers more than 25,000 acres, at a depth of 4,100 feet, with an oil column of 650+ feet, and up to 150 feet of net pay with an average porosity of 22%. (Read more from “Armstrong Announces Significant Discoveries on Alaska’s North Slope” HERE)
Photo Credit: international Business Times Traffic along Alaska’s famous Dalton Highway has stalled at a time when hundreds of truckers would typically be transporting critical supplies to the state’s northern oil fields. The highway known as the Ice Road in the popular History channel series “Ice Road Truckers” is the only overland route to these lucrative operations, but the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities closed a stretch of the road this week due to extreme flooding. The road is covered by up to 2 feet of water in places and the agency expects it will remain closed for four days to a week.
Earlier this spring, the Dalton was closed for a week when overflow from the Sagavanirktok River froze on the roadway in thick layers of ice. On an average day, at least 100 truckers travel the corridor — it runs more than 400 miles from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay — to supply more than a dozen companies including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and BP that operate at nearby oil fields. (Read more from “Alaska’s Famous Ice Road Closed Due to Extreme Flooding” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-20 00:29:042016-04-11 11:00:58Alaska’s Famous Ice Road Closed Due to Extreme Flooding
This morning the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the education and research arm of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, published a new paper examining how expansion of the Medicaid program in Alaska will significantly increase the number of abortions in the state. The analysis comes as the Alaska legislature considers a law that would expand Medicaid enrollment.
Alaska is one of 17 states that funds abortion through Medicaid. According to CLI Associate Scholar Michael J. New, Ph.D. who authored the paper, the expansion would increase the state abortion rate in at least four ways. The expansion will:
• Add between 10,000 and 15,000 women of childbearing age onto the program, which already funds a high percentage of abortions in Alaska.
• Result in more Medicaid-eligible women leaving non-abortion-covering insurance plans to enroll in the abortion-covering Medicaid program.
• End the incentive for women to carry their children to term since an expansion would allow for childless low-income women who seek an abortion to remain on Medicaid.
• Increase the amount of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider whose Alaska affiliates perform a substantial amount of the state’s abortions.
“Alaska already has one of the highest rates of publicly funded abortions in the country,” said Chuck Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute. “Expanding the Medicaid program will encourage and incentivize abortion for low-income women and further devalue life in the state. Overall, Dr. New’s analysis validates prior concerns from pro-life groups about an increase of taxpayer-funded abortions under Obamacare, particularly when those states expand their Medicaid program under the health care law.”
An initial analysis by CLI from 2013 calculated that overall about 6 million women could potentially gain coverage for abortion under Obamacare, with half of those due to state Medicaid expansion. In 2014, CLI joined with Family Research Council to launch ObamacareAbortion.com, an online resource for the general public to make up for the administration’s lack of transparency on abortion coverage in health insurance plans.
Charlotte Lozier Institute was launched in 2011 as the education and research arm of Susan B. Anthony List. CLI is a hub for research and public policy analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and nations around the world. The Institute is named for a feminist physician known for her commitment to the sanctity of human life and equal career and educational opportunities for women. (See ” Alaska Medicaid Expansion Would Significantly Increase Taxpayer-Funded Abortions”, originally posted HERE)
In August 2014, two Norwegian scientists set off with 21 tons of supplies—food, equipment to measure ocean depth, an instrument to clock water currents, computers, and a specially designed hovercraft named Sabvabaa (Inuit for “flows swiftly over it”)—loaded onto a jagged-edged slab of ice about 200 miles from the North Pole. Unlike their cargo, the researchers’ plan was simple: For the upcoming months, the frozen island would float aimlessly, ferrying a then 72-year-old Yngve Kristoffersen and his younger colleague, Audun Tholfsen, around the Arctic, taking them where even icebreakers could not go.
They were there to drill hydroholes through the ice, film the ocean floor, and collect sediment cores that are millions of years old. After weeks adrift, their ice floe eventually led them into an Arctic no man’s land where temperatures can drop to minus 45 degrees Celsius and trigger powerful gales. The two men were alone but for the occasional white fox. That’s why, in October 2014, the hardy researchers were stunned to spot something unmistakable about two miles from their base: visitors.
As the scientists approached lights they had spotted in the distance, they made out the hulking black bow and sail of a submarine poking up through the ice. But before they reached the site, it quickly disappeared. Based on photographs taken by the scientists, the Norwegian team later determined that the vessel was likely the Orenburg, a Russian sub—which carries with it a nuclear-powered mini-sub—used for deep-dive intelligence missions . . .
The run-in was anything but coincidental. Like Kristoffersen and Tholfsen, the Orenburg was there to drill into undersea ranges in order to collect geological samples from the Lomonosov Ridge, a little-known underwater mountain chain that rises about 12,000 feet above the seabed and stretches for more than 1,000 miles. Under and around this formation lies nearly a quarter of the Earth’s remaining fossil fuel resources. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds a staggering 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil, approximately 90 billion barrels, as well as 30 percent of its natural gas, or about 1,669 trillion cubic feet.
Worth an estimated $17.2 trillion, an amount roughly equivalent to the entire U.S. economy, these resources have been trapped for eons under a dome of ice and snow. . . (Read more from “Frozen Assets: Inside the Spy War for Control of the Arctic” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-14 01:35:522015-05-14 01:35:52Frozen Assets: Inside the Spy War for Control of the Arctic
Foss Maritime said Friday it plans to appeal the city’s decision that the Port of Seattle needs a new land-use permit to host Royal Dutch Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet at Terminal 5.
Mayor Ed Murray said Monday the Port needs a new permit because the current permit allows for cargo loading and unloading — not for maintaining and supplying oil-drilling rigs.
Foss argues, however, that the current permit for Terminal 5 allows port customers to tie up vessels so goods and cargo can be stored, loaded and unloaded, “which is precisely what Foss is doing at Terminal 5,” the company said in the statement.
The company estimates the appeal process will take months to complete. In the meantime Foss intends to move ahead with its operations at Terminal 5 as Shell prepares for the summer oil-exploration season in Alaska.
“The city’s position is not supported by the plain language of the permit at issue, and will cause long-term harm to the maritime industry as a whole,” Foss said in the release. “This action is akin to the mayor ordering Seattle City Light to cut off all electricity to Amazon on the Friday after Thanksgiving.” (Read more from “Foss Maritime Fights to Host Shell’s Drilling Rigs in Seattle” HERE)
One of the most important and yet difficult things to do in our faith journey is to trust God in all circumstances. Elections come and go but His purposes are never thwarted. It often takes loss to bring that in to clarity.
The numbers on the scoreboard Tuesday were obviously a disappointment for those of us living in the Anchorage area. At the same time, what happens here often has a rippling effect throughout the state so all Alaskans were impacted. The fact is Amy Demboski was always the underdog on this playing field, as measured by fund-raising and name familiarity.
But I am grateful that Amy entered this campaign, because she gave Anchorage voters a clear, conservative alternative to an opponent who basically seemed to be running for the 3rd term of Mark Begich.
Thankfully, Amy will remain on the Anchorage Assembly – and her role there will be even more crucial, as a conservative check against the liberal agenda of Ethan Berkowitz. I believe that Amy Demboski has a bright future ahead of her in local politics. Expect to see bumper stickers in the near future: “Don’t blame me! I voted for Demboski.”
Though the outcome was a disappointment, I’m indeed proud of the independent campaign that Alaska Family Action undertook to help a conservative candidate for mayor. I’m especially grateful to all of the donors and volunteers of AFA who made that effort possible.
Perhaps you’ve heard this saying from Teddy Roosevelt:
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
That’s a good thought to embrace in the realm of political campaigns. Over the last eight years, AFA has been involved in numerous political campaigns, for issues and candidates alike. We’ve won more than we’ve lost – but make no mistake, we know the taste of both victory and defeat.
At the beginning of each campaign, we always start with the knowledge that the outcome is affected by a hundred different variables – and only a few of them are within our control. But the essential truth is: for those variables that we can control, we have a moral responsibility to engage. You give it 100 percent of your time and energy, you leave no stone unturned, you strive for excellence. And then the rest is in God’s hands.
I predict one of the accusations that will be made is that Amy Demboski lost the race because she and her supporters focused too much on “controversial” social issues. As usual, this is a one-sided analysis.
Andrew Halcro, when he ran the Anchorage Chamber, was constantly grandstanding about how pro-gay he was – yet nobody ever accused him of being “obsessed” with social issues. When Halcro lost the Mayoral race on April 7, did anyone in the liberal media say, “Oh, he lost the race because he was crazy-liberal on social issues?” Of course not. Such thoughts are not in keeping with the liberal narrative of reality. Yet there is no question that social conservatives avoided voting for Halcro precisely because of his liberal record, and that lack of support was decisive in causing him not to make the run-off election.
What about Ethan Berkowitz? He was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s No. 1 abortion profiteer, and he was also endorsed by a local gay rights organization, precisely because he opposed the will of 57 percent of Anchorage voters who rejected Proposition 5. Berkowitz proclaimed, “I would like to be the first Anchorage mayor to officiate a gay wedding.” Wow – does that kind of rhetoric indicate that you’re too obsessed with social issues? Not in the view of the liberal media. You only get branded as being “obsessed” with social issues if you come down on the conservative side.
Let’s not forget Dan Coffey. Remember him? The guy who entered the race first, spent more money than everyone else, and finished dead last among the major candidates. The Republican establishment rallied around Coffey as the “electable” candidate who had the best chance of winning. Oh yes, and Coffey studiously ignored the social issues – isn’t that what “smart” candidates are supposed to do?
Coffey proclaimed at one debate, “My politics is fiscal conservatism. On social issues, what you do and how you do it is your own business. It’s not a concern of the government.” Ah yes – music to the Establishment’s ears. Yet Coffey struggled mightily to finish with barely more than 14 percent of the vote. Did you recall anyone in the political “chattering class” saying that maybe Coffey lost because he ignored social issues – thereby losing the votes of both social conservatives and social liberals? Not a chance. That would require discerning reality in a novel way, and many in the liberal media and the Republican Establishment have proven themselves incapable of doing that.
So the bottom line is: be wary of all the political “spin” that you will hear in the coming days, especially as it relates to social issues. The primary reasons that Ethan Berkowitz won this election is because he had a 2 to 1 fundraising advantage, an adoring local media, and higher name ID from running three previous statewide campaigns and serving 10 years in the Legislature. (See “Did Social Issues Sink Republican in Anchorage Mayoral Race?”, originally posted HERE)
An outdoorsman and past character on National Geographic’s reality show “Ultimate Survival Alaska” has been found shot dead, and Alaska State Troopers were investigating the case as a homicide.
Officers responded to 69-year-old Jimmy Gojdics’ residence in Fox Sunday to find the victim with gunshot wounds, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. Gojdics was transported to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Gojdics sometimes spelled his last name Gaydos, the way it’s pronounced and the name he was known as in “Ultimate Survival.” National Geographic Channel’s website says he had worked as a fisherman, horse wrangler, blacksmith, forest service firefighter, river guide and wilderness guide.
“Jimmy Gaydos… appeared on the second season of National Geographic Channel’s series ‘Ultimate Survival Alaska,’ airing in 2014,” a network rep said in a statement sent to FOX411. “Mr. Gaydos appeared in the first three episodes of the second season but sustained an injury that made it impossible for his team to continue in the competition. We were saddened to learn of Mr. Gaydos’s untimely passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this difficult time.” (Read more from “‘Ultimate Survival Alaska’ Reality Star Found Shot Dead” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-07 03:30:002015-05-07 03:30:00‘Ultimate Survival Alaska’ Reality Star Found Shot Dead [+video]
The results are in on Tuesday night’s Anchorage Mayoral race, and they aren’t pretty. Aided by the Alaska media and Establishment Republicans, liberal Democrat Ethan Berkowitz won the mayoral runoff handily.
Preliminary numbers showed Berkowitz finishing the night with 59% of the vote. Demboski received just under 41%.
But the larger story of this race was the Alaska media’s slimming of yet another conservative candidate.
After trumping up a story that accused Demboski of implying that Ethan Berkowitz believed in incest, Alaska Dispatch News then fanned the flames of public outrage, while allowing Mr. Berkowitz to brush the suggestion off as a “false and obscene accusation.” Demboski never implied any such thing.
A local talk-radio host ambushed Demboski on air and pressed her to defend Berkowitz against Anchorage Baptist Temple Pastor Jerry Prevo, who merely repeated what he had been told on good authority that Berkowitz himself said, which was that a father should be allowed to marry his own son. Demboski, who heard Berkowitz radio show on which the comments were made, merely declined to speculate on what Berkowitz had said and referred the host to Berkowitz for an explanation of his comments.
Meanwhile the press went on a feeding frenzy, hounding Demboski for an explanation of the Berkowtiz statement, and castigating her for steering the campaign into controversial waters.
But when the tape emerged on Monday afternoon, proving that Mr. Berkowitz had indeed made the controversial statements and had further lied to cover it up, Alaska Dispatch News didn’t even deem the revelation deserving of its own headline.
The local CBS television affiliate, KTVA, never reported the revelation of explosive audio recording, and election morning added insult to injury by announcing in a special segment on endorsements that Republican United States Senator Dan Sullivan had endorsed liberal Democrat Ethan Berkowitz for mayor. Sullivan had publicly endorsed Demboski a week earlier.
Alaska Dispatch News had also written a hit piece on Demboski stemming from an almost 20-year-old divorce. It was completely unsubstantiated, and vicious.
Both Establishment Republicans defeated by conservative Amy Demboski in the April 7th election, Dan Coffey and Andrew Halcro, declined to endorse when Demboski moved to the runoff, despite pre-election promises to do so.
Not only did they decline to endorse, but they openly attacked Demboski in the press, on talk radio, and by social media. Andrew Halcro then endorsed liberal Democrat Ethan Berkowitz just days before the May 5th runoff.
When the history of the 2015 Anchorage mayoral election is written, it will tell yet another sad tale of a corrupt Alaska media, and a divided Republican Party whose faithless Establishment wing once again delivered a victory for liberal progressives.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-07 03:29:432015-05-07 03:29:43Alaska Media and Establishment Republicans Deliver Yet Another Electoral Victory for Liberal Progressives
Politics is notorious for dirty tricks. But the one Ethan Berkowitz and his team pulled off last week, with the full cooperation of the mainstream media, takes the cake.
The Tuesday April 28th edition of the Bernadette Live show on KFQD was guest hosted by the former morning host Casey Reynolds. What Reynolds didn’t disclose at the time was that his long-time girlfriend was a paid staffer of the Berkowitz campaign.
Two days earlier, Anchorage Baptist Temple pastor Jerry Prevo had publicly called Ethan Berkowitz out for his public stance on gay marriage, and more particularly for comments he made on KFQD regarding his libertine views back in the fall of 2014.
During that broadcast, the Democrat mayoral candidate went so far as to say that it was alright with him if a father wanted to marry his own son as long as they were consenting adults. But at the time Jerry Prevo raised the question about Berkowitz’s statement, no one seemed to have the podcast of the radio show in question.
What came next is one of the most sinister political stunts I have ever seen.
Reynolds invited Anchorage mayoral candidate Amy Demboski on the show, purportedly to talk about the mayor’s race and her vision for the economic future of the Municipality.
But it appears Reynolds’ primary motive was to ambush Demboski with the incest question in an attempt to divide her base and exonerate Berkowitz.
The problem is, Demboski didn’t cooperate. Instead she affirmed that she too had heard the conversation in question, and wouldn’t presume to speak for Berkowitz.
Repeatedly, Reynolds pushed Demboski to affirm that Ethan Berkowitz didn’t really mean what he said. She continued to decline and referred Reynolds to Berkowitz for an interpretation of his own comments. Reynolds responded by accusing Demboski of implying that Berkowitz approved of incest.
The next day, Alaska Dispatch News ran a story with the headline “Demboski stuns radio host by implying opponent might approve of incest.” It was a complete fabrication.
Until the Reynolds interview, Amy Demboski had never mentioned Ethan Berkowitz’ obscene comments, and declined to editorialize on them when they did come up.
Fast forward five days. Berkowitz’ co-host on that fateful October day has now come out with an op-ed affirming that Ethan did indeed make the comments, the station manager at KFQD, Joe Campbell, has also confirmed that the conversation happened, and a number of other witnesses who recall hearing it have come forward.
And now, a copy of the podcast has found its way into the public sphere.
But the media continues to coddle Berkowitz, refusing to demand answers. A KTVA guest columnist on Sunday evening even went so far as to call his conduct in the campaign “gentlemanly.”
How is it gentlemanly to sit silently by while someone else is punished for your crimes? For days, Berkowitz was silent while Amy Demboski was pummeled by the media and subjected to verbal abuse on social media just for having the audacity to admit she heard the Berkowitz conversation, and refusing to comment on it.
The truth is, Ethan Berkowitz dragged the public through the gutter, and blamed Demboski for it.
Berkowitz has serially sought to mislead the public by deflecting, saying only that he wasn’t going to dignify the question with an answer.
When finally Berkowitz was forced out of the closet by his co-host, he would only say that he does not support father-son marriages, calling the substance of his earlier comments on talk radio an “obscene accusation.”
On the May 4th edition of Bernadette Live, Mr. Berkowitz opined, “It’s incredibly sad that people put me in a position where I have to deny things that are false and obscene, but those accusations are false and obscene.”
But who made the accusation? According to witnesses – and now the podcast itself – it obviously came out of Ethan Berkowitz’ own mouth. Not only is Ethan Berkowitz not squaring with the public, he has compounded his error by feigning virtue.
And that gentlemanly thing – apparently marriage isn’t the only thing he wants to redefine.
Where I grew up, a gentleman acted out of noble motives, took personal responsibility, and told the truth.
Ethan Berkowitz has missed the mark on all counts. Not only has he failed to do the right thing, he has sought to transfer the blame for his own words to his opponent.
It’s not for Amy to defend Ethan’s indefensible comments, as the media would have her do. Nor is it her responsibility to absolve him, as though she had the power to do it.
It’s time for Ethan Berkowitz to stop hiding behind Amy Demboski’s skirt, man up, and take responsibility for his own actions. The public deserves an explanation.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-04 23:27:002015-05-04 23:27:00It’s Time for Ethan Berkowitz to Man Up! [+video]
The results are in on Tuesday night’s Anchorage Mayoral race, and they aren’t pretty. Aided by the Alaska media and Establishment Republicans, liberal Democrat Ethan Berkowitz won the mayoral runoff handily.
